The Wars Over Kashmir

Kashmir, a 222,236 sq km region in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, is surrounded by China in the northeast, the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in the south, by Pakistan in the west, and by Afghanistan in the northwest.

One portion of Kashmir is called Jammu and Kashmir and the other, Pakistani-controlled part of the region is known as Azad Kashmir. The Kashmir Valley is one of the most fertile lands on the planet, thick with rich pine and cedar forests and covered in rice paddies, hemp and saffron, apple and apricot orchards and walnut trees. "Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashemere," wrote the Irish poet Thomas Moore in 1817, "with its roses the brightest that earth ever gave." Kashmir is so breathtaking in physical beauty that Mugal emperors in the 16th and 17th century considered it “an earthly paradise”.

If Kashmir was a paradise under the Mugals, it's been nothing of the sort since the middle part of the 20th century (unfortunately). The region has been dubbed "disputed territory" between India and Pakistan since the partition of India in 1947. Although, during partition, the agreement was that any areas more than 70% Muslim would go to Pakistan. Kashmir has more than 90% Muslims and therefore clearly should have been part of Pakistan, but Kashmir was split, with two-thirds going to India and a third going to Pakistan, even though India's share was predominantly Muslim. Due to this integrity, Muslims rebelled. India repressed them and again war broke out. In 1965, India and Pakistan fought their second of three major wars since 1947 over Kashmir. The United States was largely to blame for setting the stage for war. The second war over Kashmir, never declared, broke out on Aug. 15, 1965 and lasted un...

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I am a common man and I have nothing to do with politics. I know only one thing that my Muslim Kashmiri brothers are in problem and that needs to be solved. From back of my heart I want Kashmir to be a part of Pakistan. But again we don’t want to force our will on Kashmiri people. Whatever they will decide Pakistani nation will accept. I don’t know when Indian Government will let them decide. The people of Kashmir should come out and pressurize their respective Government to resolve this bleeding issue once and for all. At last the moral is that Kashmiris should be allowed to choose their own destiny. Enough blood has been spilled already. India is the belligerent one here to the point of embarrassment. But all belligerent nations have had to eat the humble pie at some point. We are in no doubt that ultimately Kashmiris would be the final arbiter of their destiny.